BELLINGHAM - Masked gunmen stalked the halls of Bellingham High School Tuesday afternoon and caused chaos, intent on teaching those inside a lesson.

The group of gunmen - made up of school administrators and Bellingham police officers – held Nerf and Airsoft guns as they walked through the halls, conducting an active shooter drill meant to introduce teachers and administrators to the positive aspects of a new type of safety program not yet part of the school’s current safety policies.

Although some faculty did not fully understand what was expected of them during the training, and were seen implementing different stratagies from both the current and possible future policies, Superintendent Edward Fleury said the exercise was “a definite dose of reality.”

Police Officer Leonard Gosselin explained the school’s current policy, called “lockdown" as a procuedure in which teachers and students lock their doors, turn out their room lights, draw shades and wait for first responders in the corner of the room furthest from any windows or doors. This corner is known as the “safe spot.”

After explaining the lockdown scenario, Gosselin ironically told those in attendance as long as they followed the procedure, “you will be safe from any intruder.” The audience replied with laughter.

“The worst thing you can do is to sit in your safe spot and wait to be slaughtered," Gosselin said. "I call the safe spots kill spots.”

He also admitted to instructing his own child against the lockdown procedure. “I tell my own kid, ‘Get the hell out of there and save your own rear end.’”

Gosselin then took time to introduce a new safety procedure, which has been seen in other parts of the country and has been recommended by the governor’s office, called the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) program.

ALICE, according to Gosselin, is a program that educates teachers to barricade doors, find ways of communicating important information, distract the perpetrator and, if possible, escape.

“We are proposing ALICE today because we want to get the teachers on board," Gosselin said. However, in order for the policy to change, Fleury as well as the school board would have to endorse the program.

Fleury said that he and the school committee “will endorse anything” recommended by the police department. However, he added he does wish to see a modified training plan to reduce the amount of confusion that occurred during Tuesday's exercise.

“Today we had chaos with only the staff, imagine that with 700 students," Fleury said. "The big deal for us is accountability, and we have to be held accountable.”

Fleury invited Officer Gosselin to the next administrative team meeting on Sept. 3. in order to move forward with implementing the new procedure.